Hitchcock coach comes to rescue when bus driver passes out

A bus driver briefly passed out while driving Hitchcock’s Crosby Middle School 8th grade basketball team to a game Monday and Coach Jerome Cargile stepped in to keep the bus load of kids from harm, KHOU and the Galveston Daily News are reporting.

KHOU-TV (Channel 11) reports that as the bus driver hit 45 mph on a curvy two-lane road, he passed out:

Coaches jumped from their seats. One grabbed the driver. Cargile took control.

“I came up front and grabbed the steering wheel to get it back on the road,” he said. “As I jacked the steering wheel, the bus almost tipped over. So I had to turn the wheel back and get it to the side of the road.”

Parents were reportedly upset and called for an investigation of the driver, Frank Wolf, 57, who told the Galveston Daily News he was chewing on some ice, then began coughing uncontrollably:

“It was all very, very fast,” Wolf said. “Something happened, something triggered something that made me unable to operate the bus.”

… Wolf said he was still in the driver’s seat and was not pulled away as was previously reported. Wolf said he steered the bus off to the shoulder.

“It was a very scary moment,” Wolf said. “(Cargile) just jumped up, went into action and kept it from becoming a really bad story.”

The Daily News reported that Wolf said he went to a doctor Thursday and his employer, Durham School Services, was investigating the incident.